Rikbaktsa language
{{Expand Portuguese|Língua rikbaktsa|date=May 2022}}
{{Short description|Macro-Ge language spoken in Brazil}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Rikbaktsá
| nativename = {{lang|rkb|erigpaksá}}
| states = Brazil
| region = Mato Grosso
| ethnicity = 1,140 Rikbaktsa people (2006)
| speakers = 40
| date = 2010
| ref = e18
| familycolor = macro-je | fontcolor = white
| fam1 = Macro-Gê
| iso3 = rkb
| glotto = rikb1245
| glottorefname = Rikbaktsa
| map = Rikbaktsa language.png
| mapcaption =
| map2 = Lang Status 40-SE.svg
| mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Rikbaktsa is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger}}}}
| altname = Canoeiro
}}
The Rikbaktsa language, also spelled Aripaktsa, Erikbatsa or Erikpatsa and known ambiguously as Canoeiro, is a language spoken by 40 of the Rikbaktsa people of Mato Grosso, Brazil, that forms its own branch of the Macro-Gê languages, or is a language isolate.
Most Rikbaktsa can speak both Rikbaktsa and Portuguese. Younger individuals tend to speak Portuguese more frequently and fluently than their elders, but older individuals generally struggle with Portuguese and use it only with non-indigenous Brazilians.Arruda, Rinaldo S.V. [http://www.socioambiental.org/pib/epienglish/rikbaktsa/language.shtm "Rikbaktsa: Language."] In Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. Instituto Socioambiental (November 1998).
Jolkesky (2016) also notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban languages.{{cite thesis|last=Jolkesky |first=Marcelo Pinho de Valhery |date=2016 |url=http://www.etnolinguistica.org/tese:jolkesky-2016-arqueoecolinguistica |title=Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas |type=Ph.D. dissertation |location=Brasília |publisher=University of Brasília |edition=2}}
Locations
The 22nd edition of Ethnologue reports that it is spoken around confluence of the Sangue River and Juruena River in:
- Japuira on the east bank of the Juruena River, between the Arinos River and Sangue River
- Posto Escondido on the west bank of the Juruena River (9 villages, 14 settlements)
Phonology
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Vowels ! !Back |
| Close
|i |ɨ |u |
|---|
| Close-mid
|e | |o |
| Mid
| |ə | |
| Open
| |a | |
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Nasal vowels ! !Back |
| Close
|ĩ |ɨ̃ |ũ |
|---|
| Close-mid
|ẽ | |õ |
| Mid
| |ə̃ | |
| Open
| |ã | |
- /i, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ʊ] when in syllable-final position.
- /e, o/ can be heard as [ɛ, ɔ] when in unstressed syllables.
- /a/ is heard as [ʌ] in final unstressed syllables, as [æ] when following /tʃ/ heard as [tʃʲ], and as [ɑ] when occurring after the sequence /ku/.
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Consonants ! colspan="2" | |
| rowspan="2" |Stop
!voiceless |p |t | | | |k |(ʔ) |
|---|
| voiced
|b |d | | | | | |
| colspan="2" |Affricate
| | |t͡ʃ | | | | |
| colspan="2" |Fricative
| | |ʃ | | | |h |
| colspan="2" |Nasal
|m |n | | | | | |
| colspan="2" |Approximant
|w | | | |j | | |
| colspan="2" |Flap
| |ɾ | |ɽ | | | |
- A glottal stop [ʔ] can also be heard in initial and final position when before and after vowels.
- /d/ can be palatalized as [dʲ] when before /i/.
- /t͡ʃ/ can be palatalized as [t͡ʃʲ] when in front of /a/.
- /p, k/ can be heard as aspirated [pʰ, kʰ] when before an accented syllable.
- /k/ can be heard as voiced [ɡ] when before voiced consonants.
- /w/ can be heard as [β] when in stressed syllable before front vowels.
- Sounds /ɾ, w, h/ can be heard as nasal [ɾ̃, w̃, h̃] when in nasal vowel positions.{{Cite book |last=Silva |first=Leia de Jesus |title=Aspectos da fonologia e a morfologia da língua Rikbaktsa |publisher=Universidade de Brasília |year=2005}}
Grammar
{{Expand section|date=March 2025}}
As in other languages of the area, word endings indicate the gender of the speaker. Rikbaktsa is a subject-object-verb language.
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items.{{cite book |last=Loukotka |first=Čestmír |author-link=Čestmír Loukotka |title=Classification of South American Indian languages |url=https://archive.org/details/classificationof0007louk |url-access=registration |publisher=UCLA Latin American Center |year=1968 |location=Los Angeles}}
:
| class="wikitable"
! gloss !! Erikbaktsa | |
| one | aistuːba |
| ear | ka-spi |
| tooth | írata |
| hand | ka-shuisha |
| woman | matutsi |
| water | pihʔik |
| fire | idoː |
| stone | harahairi |
| maize | uanátsi |
References
{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=Wiktionary has a word list at Appendix:Rikbaktsa word list}}
{{reflist}}
{{Languages of Brazil}}
{{Macro-Jê languages}}
{{South American languages}}
Category:Nuclear Macro-Jê languages
Category:Indigenous languages of South America (Central)
Category:Subject–object–verb languages
Category:Endangered Indigenous languages of the Americas
Category:Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area
{{Macro-Jê-lang-stub}}